Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heater, particularly for a motor vehicle.
Description of the Background Art
Heaters, particularly electric heaters, have a variety of uses in motor vehicles. Typical areas of application for the electric heater are the interior air of a passenger compartment of the motor vehicle, heating, particularly the preheating of cooling water in water-cooled internal combustion engines, or the warming of fuel at cold outside temperatures. The heater is often also used as auxiliary heating. The heater typically has one or more heating elements and a control unit for controlling and regulating the heater. The heating elements are usually formed as an electrical thermal resistor, particularly as a PTC element (Positive Temperature Coefficient). The heating elements and the control unit can be formed as separate units connected by means of lines. It is also known, however, to place the heating elements and the control unit in a structural unit, particularly in a frame, in order to make the connecting lines as short as possible.
EP 1 157 869, which corresponds to U.S. 2002/0011484, discloses a supplementary electric heating device for motor vehicles, which has a heating block having a plurality of layered or stacked heating elements, which are formed as resistance heating elements and are disposed in a frame. The supplementary heating device has a control device, which is arranged on a circuit board, arranged perpendicular to a plane of the frame after assembly. The supplementary heating device is supplied with current via two connecting lugs, which project preferably on the side from the control device.
WO 03/086018 A1, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 7,200,327, discloses an electric heating device particularly for heating or for an air conditioning unit in a motor vehicle. The heating device has a housing and at least one resistive heating element, which is disposed in the housing. A control circuit, which controls the electrical current supply for the heating elements, is typically connected to a current/voltage source by means of a plug-in connector.